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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [M3r p181]

La renommee des preux est immor-
telle.

XVII.

D’Achille le tumbeau au Sigé promontoire,[1]
Si souvent visité par la blanche Thetis,[2]
D’amaranthe est couvert tousjours verd & exquis:[3]
Car jamais des Heros ne se flestrit la gloire.
Il fut rempar aux Grecs, à Hector mort amere:
Homere autant luy doit, comme il doit à Homere.[4]

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [M3v p182]

Commentaires.

L’inscription de cest embleme luy sert de commen-
taire. Amaranthe est une herbe qui ne flestrit jamais.
C’est pourquoy on ne revestit les sepulchres des preux
& vaillans Capitaines. Thetis est tousjours en l’eau.
Et pource on la surnomme blanche, & aux pieds
blancs. Achille doit beaucoup à Homere, pource qu’il
l’a immortalisé par sa docte poësie: Mais Homere ne
doit pas peu à Achille, puis qu’il l’a fourni de si digne
subject & argument pour pouvoir desployer les thre-
sors de son eloquence.

Notes:

1.  ‘Aeacus’ descendant’, i.e. Achilles, the greatest warrior on the Greek side in the Trojan War. Rhoeteum was a promontory on the Trojan coast (though normally associated with the tomb of Ajax).

2.  Thetis, a sea-nymph, mother of Achilles, called ‘silver-footed’ by Homer.

3.  amaranthe: the name of the plant means ‘never-fading’. See Pliny, Natural History, 21.23.47.

4.  Homer, who told in the Iliad the famous story of Achilles’ wrath and refusal to fight during the Trojan War, and of his eventual slaying of Hector, the chief warrior on the Trojan side. (For which see [FALd057]). For the sentiment that great deeds need to be sung in order not to be forgotten, see Horace, Odes, 4.8.20ff; and that great literature needs great themes, see Tacitus, Dialogus de oratoribus, 37.

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    • plants and herbs: amaranth [25G4(AMARANTH)] Search | Browse Iconclass
    • extinct, 'historical' peoples (with NAME) (+ costume) [32B2(GREEK)(+3)] Search | Browse Iconclass
    • laying flowers or wreath on grave [42E441] Search | Browse Iconclass
    • Courage, Bravery, Valiance, Manliness; 'Ardire magnanimo et generoso', 'Gagliardezza', 'Valore', 'Virt?oica', 'Virt?l'animo e del corpo' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54A8(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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    • geographical names of countries, regions, mountains, rivers, etc. (names of cities and villages excepted) (with NAME) [61D(SIGE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
    • Thetis mourning Achilles [94G533] Search | Browse Iconclass
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    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [B1v f9v]

    Scyphus Nestoris.

    Nestor’s cup

    A large vessel with birds perched around it.
    [Click on image to enlarge]

    Nestoreum geminis cratera hunc accipe fundis, [1]
    Quod gravis argenti massa profudit opus.
    Claviculi ex auro: stant circum quattuor ansae:
    Unam quanque super fulva columba sedet.
    Solus eum potuit longaevus tollere Nestor.
    Maeonidae doceas quid sibi musa velit.
    Est coelum scyphus ipse. color argenteus illi est:
    Aurea sunt coeli sidera claviculi.
    Pleiadas esse putant, quas dixerit ille columbas.[2]
    Umblici [=Umbilici] gemini,[3] magna minorque fera est.[4]
    Haec Nestor longo sapiens intelligit usu.
    Bella gerunt fortes, callidus astra tenet.

    Receive this bowl of Nestor with its double support, a work which a heavy mass of silver shaped. Its studs are of gold. Four handles stand about it. Above each one sits a yellow dove. Only aged Nestor was able to lift it. Do tell us what Homer’s Muse intended. The cup itself is the heavens; its colour is silvery; the studs are the golden stars of heaven. They think that what he called doves are the Pleiades. The twin bosses are the great and lesser beast. The wise Nestor understood this by long experience: the strong wage war, the wise man grasps the stars.

    Notes:

    1.  Nestor’s bowl is described at Homer, Iliad, 11.632-7. Only Nestor, for all his great age could lift it when full. For the interpretation of Nestor’s cup (or mixing bowl) given here, see Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 11.487 F ff.

    2.  The Greek word for ‘doves’ is πελειάδες.

    3.  ‘twin bosses’, i.e. possibly the protuberances inside the bowl where it was joined to the two supports.

    4.  ‘great and lesser beast’, i.e. the Great and Little Bear, a phrase based on Ovid, Tristia, 4.3.1: ‘magna minorque ferae’.

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